The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Groundhog Day actually was Sunday, but in a homage to the Bill Murray comedy film, equity markets reran January's declines Monday with a further drop of 2%-plus in the major averages. And the slide continued in Asia early Tuesday as bourses shuttered for the Lunar New Year returned to work.

Spurring the latest drop of 326 points, or 2.1%, in the Dow Jones Industrial Average -- the sharpest since last June -- was the latest batch of weak U.S. economic data. After fretting about the world of worries -- protests in the...